February must’ve been more brutal than I remember, or else I was permanently scarred by last summer’s rain-intensive Year of Almost No Sunlight, because somehow I ended up with 42 different tomato varieties, mostly single plants, mostly mail-order. (And, yes, I understand that completely violates the whole virtuous green locavore ethos of growing one’s own, but there you have it.) This year’s repeaters: Black Prince, Cherokee Purple, Isis Candy, Jellybean, Juliet, Oxheart, Pineapple, Rose de Berne, Roma, Sugary, and Sun Gold. Couldn’t find a Garden Peach or Black Pear, but otherwise I’m pleased and hopeful, now that all the transplants have been crammed into what passes for the “sunny spots” in our tiny New England fiefdom.
On the other hand, the boutique seed potatoes I planted early last week aren’t sprouting, but the ones waiting in the kitchen are.
Product review: The Bionic gardening gloves have been worth every penny. Tough enough for the heavy work, but thin enough that I didn’t end up taking them off while potting out tiny transplants. This is the first year I’ve been able to rake winter mulch, dig planting holes, clean out pots, transplant seedlings, and prune the blood-thirsty mini-roses without my hands ending up looking like I’d lost an argument with a large bobcat or a very small bear. But even though they’re supposed to fit tightly, they run small — I actually bought mine at a local garden show, and had to move up from a men’s medium to a large to be comfortable.
Everything in the garden is running a couple of weeks ahead of schedule this year, thanks to an unusually warm & rainy February/March/April. The Zepherine Drouhan (pink) roses and Rozanne (pale purple) geraniums have been glorious for the last couple of weeks, and now the Don Juan (dark red) roses are starting to open. The Siberian and dwarf irises are over, but the daylilies are just starting to bud. After almost 20 years of poor choices, missteps, and failures, I’m finally starting to see results approximating the pretty pictures of my snow-bound phantasies…
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So… how’s your garden plan going?
Yutsano
Feh. My raspberries have barely started blooming and it’s almost June. If this keeps up I’ll be lucky to get any sort of jam by August. And there’s a possibility I might not even be here when they all turn ready.
Grover Gardner
Tomatoes have early blight. Have to rip em up and start a new plot somewhere else. Still too cold here in Southern Oregon anyway, and I’m learning that you have to rotate tomato plots to keep these viruses from imbedding in the soil. I didn’t clear the stalks from last year and I understand that’s a no-no. Snow peas are coming up, though, and the lettuce, cukes and corn are doing okay. Had boffo eggplants last year, might try that again. Last year was my first-ever veggie garden and I had incredible luck, so I’m trying not to be disappointed!
hg
Wait, you are already up? I havent slept yet!
asiangrrlMN
I don’t garden, but I visited a plant center with a friend the other day, and I saw the plant I would plant if I did garden. It was a Hawaiian something or the other (something royal), and it had big, black leaves. It was way cool.
@hg: I think she is still up, as am I.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
and me. Apparently. Pizza on its way. yay.
geg6
The plan is to spend the rest of the weekend on my John’s garden. The asparagus is about done, but the tomatoes he has in the cold racks are ready to go in and I’m picking up red, green, and Hungarian pepper plants today. The red and black raspberry bushes are looking like we’ll have a bumper crop. The green onions are already popping up, as are the root veggies we planted (carrots, beets, and our first foray into potatoes). Gotta get the lettuces in for sure and I sure hope they do better this year than last.
We got the pond areas all cleared of the winter detritus and the koi are thriving. The raised flower beds surrounding the ponds are all weeded and we have a driveway full of mulch ready to put down. The rose garden is spectacular already. John is the rose afficianato so I don’t know the names, but I am drinking my coffee in the sun room with a huge bouquet on the table with some deep red tea roses, yellow, white, and pink roses, and the most beautiful and fragrant ones are a pinkish yellow variety. I’m going to be swimming in roses this year as John added another dozen bushes to the two dozen he already had and every one of them is covered with buds and blooms. It’s pretty spectacular looking.
The weather is supposed to be perfect this weekend, in the low 80s and sunny throughout. What a way to kick off summer.
bob h
I have the beginning of a bamboo grove that has moved over from my neighbor’s property. Delightful, dark green stalks that shoot up rapidly to 20-25′. But some animal, I think a racoon, is ambushing a lot of the new shoots by nibbling off the tender tops.
Ellen L
You sound like me! (Except I say 18 years of mistakes..) Gardening is hard, but like you, I am taking a moment this spring to feel some pride in all I’ve accomplished. I basically ripped everything out about six years ago and started putting everything back together, one quadrant a summer. This spring my gardens are loving life — healthy looking, strong, bloomy. It’s truly a delight! Go smell the roses, girlfriend. And I’ll check out those gloves..
R-Jud
I didn’t really plant any veggies this year, other than salad leaves (spinach, lollo rosso, arugula, mustard) and onions. I already know I’m going to be gone a lot.
The herbs are looking great, though: rosemary just finished flowering, sage, pineapple sage, and lavender getting ready to. My thymes got crushed this winter and I was worried they wouldn’t recover, but they’ve come back beautifully. Lemon balm, valerian, four kinds of mint, horseradish, nasturtium, borage, chives, catnip (plus coriander and basil in the house)– all thriving.
We’ve got fruit, too: our strawberries and raspberries look good, along with the apple and damson plum trees. And the ornamental stuff, roses and peonies and whatnot, all look set to deliver big. Amazing what a properly cold snowy winter does.
asiangrrl, you would probably like a nice black hellebore. We have one at the end of the garden; Mr Jud calls it “the Professor Snape plant”.
CDT
I’m in Arizona, so we’re just about done, but the beats, lettuce, argulua, cucumbers,strawberries, peppers, carrots, lettuce, celery (especially celery), beans, and cherry tomatoes did well. peas and blackberries, not so much. The Topsy Turby plantings didn’t do so well, probably because it doesn’t hold moisture.
Currants
I started tomatoes from seed this year, first time–grow lights in the attic–and though I only started 5 varieties (6 if you count cherry tomatoes), I couldn’t throw away the surviving seedlings and ended up with nearly 80 plants (stopped when I ran out of pots to transplant them into): Rose, Black Prince, Brandywine, and two types I brought back from Italy last year (San Marzano and Super Roma). I only have room for 16 plants, and they aren’t in the ground yet (last night was the last of my semester’s academic obligations), so I’m hoping to catch up soon. Oh yes, and all of my friends (who garden) got their tomato plants free this year.
SiubhanDuinne
@bob h #7: You’re sure it’s not a gang of marauding pandas?
Josie
I’m harvesting tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and okra. Green beans and squash are blooming. Got blossom end rot on a little squash, probably due to a deluge we got around 10 days ago. I sprayed calcium on everything last night (my garden is a miniature with raised beds and pots). When I figure out how to post pictures, I can show you. Last year was a learning experience as well as a lesson in humility. This year is looking much better.
KyCole
I’m going to have to give up on veggies in the back yard and just embrace the encroaching shade. Also the new puppy (the one I told my son not to get and that now lives here) is hell on plants. I have two somewhat leggy tomato plants (only still upright because they’re in cages) and a couple of herbs and that’s it. I’ll just enjoy the fruits of other’s labor and go to the farmer’s market down the street on Saturday mornings. The puppy also puts my plan for backyard chickens well in the future.
Digital Amish
My beans are starting to climb. My peas are flowering. Been eating lettuce and spinach for a week or so. Transplanted corn last week and, if the deer allow, it should be knee high by the 4th of July. Onions and garlic doing fine. Cauliflower starts put out. Squash plants put out but don’t seem to like the great outdoors as much as the greenhouse. The neighbors chickens decided that the beets were a perfect spot for a dirt bath. The first round of potatoes rotted in the ground (too early?). The second round are thriving. Strawberries by the end of next week maybe. Have 16 tomato plants that should be repotted but events dictate that I must go out to LaPush and consume alcohol this weekend and mock the Twilight geeks.
Lisa K.
The only tomatoes I like are Sun Gold. I have about seven of them going in patio planters, along with a variety of herbs. I have a small raised bed for vegetables, and there’s lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumber as well. It doesn’t really get enough sun, though, because of the maples in the back which I am planning on having taken down one of these days….
My farmer daylilies and stellas are beginning to bud as well.
ChrisS
First garden at the new house is getting underway. Memorial Day weekend is a pretty safe bet to start gardens in upstate NY. Although with the hot weather we’ve had for the last week or so, people have already started.
Rows are dugs and weeded, manure/humus mixture added in, seeds are arranged and ready to be sown, and all that’s left is to pick up the tomato and pepper plants to be transplanted. It’s not going to be a huge garden, just me and the lady, but hopefully I get my $50 and 10 hours of labor (so far) in return. I foresee bushy herbs, thick sweet carrots, tangy radishes, and plenty of pickling cucumbers. Hopefully the lettuces and chard work out as well. The black raspberry bushes are bloomed out and the fruits are developing, the strawberries as well. We have a small pear tree that has perhaps 20-30 fruits beginning.
How much damage can squirrels to do to garden as opposed to bunnies? I have about four squirrels that ravage my birdfeeder. Also, I impaled a poor toad with the garden fork yesterday. Poor little fellow must have burrowed into the wet soil to escape the heat. Never saw him till I went to clean off what I first thought was an old bulb.
BethanyAnne
Yea, my Topsy Turvy planters are doing ok, but nothing spectacular. I have black cherry tomatoes in one, and white in the other. The Virginia Sweets are growing like weeds, and the Black from Tula seem to be doing ok. We had a funky cold February here in Houston, so I didn’t get them in the pots as soon as I’d have liked. Plus, you know, I don’t much know what I’m doing yet :) This is the second time I’ve grown tomatoes at all. It’s all I’m growing in my small apartment. Told Mom yesterday that I think tomatoes are gateway plants… you start with them, and soon you’re looking at peppers and maybe some squash…
Wanna figure a way to grow more and better here. I have the square foot garden book coming to me at the library. Maybe that will help. I love the little Earthtainer thing. http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/
I’m thinking about seeing if a friend has tools in his garage that will let me make a couple of those.
Comrade Mary
I got a bunch of tomato seedlings that have been pretty good for me before (a beefsteak variation and some Carolina Gold types). They should so well in my semi-sunny back yard, but I’m not so sure about the peppers, as they seem more finicky about MOAR LIGHT! But I have to go for grow lights next year and start my own seedlings, because I really want to try some heirloom varieties.
Those gloves look AMAZING! I’ve been thinking of moving the trifid — err, raspberry bush — away from the house and over to a corner. It’s less sunny there, and I may get less fruit, but at least I won’t have to keep the damn thing chained up so it won’t seek blood every time someone walks by.
It’s also propagated to the back of the plot where I originally wanted to put tomatoes. It was charming when my slutty little strawberries sent runners all over the place, survived the winter, and started flowering again this spring, but it’s not so charming when a killer does it.
But with the gloves and some old SCAdian armour, I may actually be able to transplant the bush(es) to the corner without needing a transfusion. Cool!
RedKitten
No veggie garden for us just yet, as we’re still dealing with the mud farm.
But the planning of it is fun. And we have planted some shrubs — a lilac at the corner of our front porch, with a burning bush not far from it. Holly flanking the front steps. A mugho pine on the west side of the house. My MIL has yellow roses ready for me whenever I figure out where I want to put them. And we have plans for a large planter near the kitchen door, which will be a righteous herb garden.
It’s tricky, though — our two biggest expanses of yard right now are the north side, which is also facing the water, so anything there would have to be pretty hardy, and the east side, which is where our septic bed is located, so we obviously can’t plant anything there with major roots. Our back yard, which is on the south side, still needs to be cleared out — we downed a bunch of trees there this spring and have yet to haul all the brush and firewood out with the tractor. Once that’s cleared, I’m pondering the idea of a magnolia tree.
Pat
Our little garden patch has broccoli, green beans, carrots, and spinach sprouting. We bought Big Boy tomato plants from the local farmers’ market and they are looking strong and already getting flowers.
Eight weeks ago the garden was under three feet of water left from the March 30th nor’easter that hit our area, so after lots of topsoil I’m happy to report we will have another growing season after all!
Legalize
I have nothing as complicated as Anne Laurie has, but my tomato plants are taking off. It’s been pretty warm, muggy, and rainy here in SW Ohio, so they seem to be very happy. All of them have little yellow flowers on them. This time last year, I didn’t even have them in pots yet. So I guess I’m ahead.
Cucumbers are quickly climbing up their stakes, which I need to strengthen.
Green beans are on schedule.
Jalapenos, Habaneros, and Banana Peppers appear to be struggling at this point. But it’s early for them.
Everything is in pots on my deck, so I’m kind of at the mercy of my limited space.
Is it weird that my favorite part of every day is getting home from work to tend to the green things on my deck?
Ash Can
My landscaping is a little on the chaotic side. A few years ago, a little old house on a double-wide lot across the street from us was torn down, and the entire lot was subdivided and dug up to make way for two new houses. After the house was torn down, but before the excavation started, I ran my wheelbarrow over there early and often, digging up the roses, peonies, vinca, day lilies, bluebells, hostas, phlox, violets, windflowers, and even a maple seedling that would otherwise have been wiped out by the bulldozers and backhoes. I transplanted everything wherever around the yard I could find room, which has left me with virtually no room for veggies but plenty of flowers. (Our yard is a nice size for a city lot, but it’s a city lot nonetheless, so room is limited.) The transplants have all thrived, and have transformed the south side of the house especially, which used to be a wasteland of a few tulips and irises and a shit-ton of creeping harebells (shriek!).
The work that needs to be done now is keeping the hostas in the front planter watered (it’s too well protected by the eaves and doesn’t get enough rainwater), moving some hostas that are encroaching on other plants, pruning bushes and, of course, weeding.
Ash Can
@Legalize:
According to British researchers, not at all.
artem1s
Drew Carey was in town yesterday to tell all of us how evil we are for not conforming to true libertarian principal.
My favorite thing about living in Cleveland is when bigoted assh*les, whose parents moved them away for fear they might have to sit next to a brown kid in school, tell all of us who are actually paying taxes here, that the best way to save the city is to make it just like Parma. Oh, and also, too. win a professional sports title and put in a casino. You know, like Detroit did. That totally saved them.
Bad Horse's Filly
I have to little tomatoes that give me hope of a bountiful harvest in about a month. I’m stuck with containers this year and envy Anne Laurie her abundance of tomatoes. And boy do I remember those New England springs, dreary and dark. I remember one summer I swear I didn’t see sun until the last week in July.
Phyllis
My tomato and bell pepper bushes are full, with at least two peppers & two or three tomatoes that I think will be pickable by next week. This is only the second time I’ve done container tomatoes & peppers. Next year I think I’m going to do a raised bed garden. And I’m going to try garlic in a container this fall.
Bhall35
Thanks for the Ruthie Henshall vid. Saw her in “Chicago” and she’s a fantastically gifted British musical theater performer.
Gina
I just took some pics of the latest blooms here yesterday, zone 5, Hudson Valley/Catskills NY. Here’s the Flickr set
I have some arugula that I started late that’s going krazy, so we’re close to picking time – I like to make a spicy pesto with that using romano cheese and walnuts, and freeze what doesn’t get scarfed down right away. Traded for some tomato seedlings that are doing really well, Cabernet and some other thing, hey, whatever! Fighting with rabbits and deer over their destruction of my weigela (Wine & Roses), several rose bushes and the raspberry plants.
I have some seeds starting inside, purple and Genovese basil. Keeping the raised beds damp enough on top for seeds to sprout has been more trouble than it was worth, so I went for a head start. I have to figure out where to put the Dulce de Rojo pepper plants, and when I’m ever going to get to build my 4th raised bed.
Impulsively purchased a giant jalapeno & less giant bell pepper plant from Aldi, $4 each! Went nuts on mail order and have buddleia, toad lily, and some other perennials on the way. Oh, and there are 50 strawberry plants to build a bed for this weekend – hopefully I can enlist my husband’s help with the heavy lifting…this still leaves the garden club swap next Sunday. Oy.
Fergus Wooster
We planted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and cucumbers in raised beds for the first time. Unfortunately, an evil neighbor served us notice that he would be ripping up the back run of our yard – where we had the tomato bed – to pave it as an alley. Yes, they can do that, even though we own the land, as the block codes were written during the Coolidge administration. We would have had more recourse had the city owned that strip (go soshalism).
Anyway, we had to move the garden, thus breaking the big taproots and impairing our tomatoes. They’re still alive, but not really fruiting. And some evil bird just ate the three Champion tomatoes that were actually growing.
On the other hand, at least we’ve got some good cucumbers.
Peter
Asparagus and ramps are done, potatoes are up, tomatoes are in (a mix of paste and eating), beets, broccoli (and many more brassicas) and carrots are thriving, and we’re eating peas and copious salad. My current project is doing permaculture with fruit around the weedy perimeter; thus far I have currants, strawberries, lingonberries, thornless blackberries, raspberries, and three kinds of lambrusca grapes all installed in formerly overgrown spots. Next up, more currants, hazelnuts, and hardy kiwis (Hudson Valley/zone 5). This early spring has been great. I just hope it doesn’t rain for 2 months straight like last year. If it does, I’m going to give up and become a slug rancher.
Litlebritdifrnt
I’m about done with my planting, I still have some things to find room for cause they were little mystery bags of things at Lowes for .50cents, turns out they are blueberry bushes, raspberry canes, asparagus and grapes. No idea where they are going to go. The veggie garden is doing very well, I already have green tomatoes and can’t wait for the cherry maters to ripen. I do so love to “graze” out there in the evening.
I shall have to check into those gloves, they look great. They would certainly help with “things I have learned after it is too late” (number 3,458 in a series) do not spend the afternoon pruning the dead stuff out of your carpet roses and then eat a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips.
QuaintIrene
Nothing to do with virtue. Here in the NE last year we had that wicked blight that infected so many commercially grown tomato plants. People bought them and had them in the ground before the news got out and a lot of gardens were ruined. Just safer to grow your own.
But I do often snap up some plants to tuck in here and there in late-spring sales.
Don’t despair. Tomatoes are incredibly forgiving and resiliant. You can have a plant snapped off at ground level. Bury half the remaining stem and it’ll produce roots all up and down that stem.
Doesn’t change the fact that your neighbor is an ass.
Fergus Wooster
@Peter: Jealousy. I want ramps, but they don’t grow well in TX.
@QuaintIrene: Thanks. They’re still alive, but I think the shock put off fruiting for awhile.
We’ve put a tall fence up against the new alley-space, and I’m stocking up on quail eggs to lob over onto their cars.
tesslibrarian
We have two raised beds, about 4’x16′ in the back, and this year I am primarily planting tomatoes, but I like to mix herbs and marigolds with them. I usually plant in April, but the weather stayed cool here, and things came up, so nothing went in until mid-May.
To do this weekend: buy African Basil plants to contribute to the mix, and fertilize around both beds, with both regular fertilizer and by planting Kentucky wonder beans throughout the space. I have Matt’s Wild cherry, green zebras, sungold, arkansas travellers, brandywines, and eva purple balls.
The wild cherry I cannot recommend enough. My tiny seedling from last year took over an entire raised bed (and more) and I had huge quantities of tomatoes from about July to mid-October. I gave away several of the larger volunteer seedlings that came up this spring in the bed, but they’ve started to show up between bushes near the bed, too–where pre-emergent weed killer was put in March. Those suckers survive everything.
I finally started to keep a gardening journal, too. What we planted and when, where we bought different items. I swear, all those “what type of mulch/compost/fertilizer/beans?” conversations every spring are just as awful as the regular “well, what do YOU want for dinner?” ones.
Anne Laurie
@Fergus Wooster:
If your birds have anything in common with our squirrels / chipmunks, giving them a water source might help. A big plastic pot saucer that I can refill when I water the tomato planters has kept the local varmints from ruining my tomatoes for the past many years. Now the only predator I have to keep an eye on is our dog Zevon, who adores ripe cherry tomatoes.
ruemara
My potatoes are all old taters from my kitchen. They’ve grown in every year so feh to seed taters. Arugula has taken over my yard, thanks to me not knowing how effectively they seed. Tomaters are showing some early tomaters. Unfortunately, all my okra & summer squash seedlings have been decimated by the biggest honking snails I have ever seen. Literally bit in half overnight. Between them & the earwigs I’ve turned into a garden homicidal maniac. I hope your garden avoids the wave of pests.
And WTF moment: 3 attempts at seeding for carrots and… bupkus. Not one. I WANT BLOODY CARROTS!
TooManyJens
testing, don’t mind me
mac
Eastern panhandle of West Virginia. A couple of miles from VA.
I love hearing about all the variety of tomatoes. One of my favorites are Mr. Stripeys; Goofy name, great taste. My swiss chard and dill are just starting to take off.
Need to jump start a plant? make a tea out of worm casings and water. I was about to start over with some sickly pepper plants but a few doses brought them back to life.
Fergus Wooster
@Anne Laurie: Thanks!